Father Bear
by ewebster123
Summary: Ibiki never really was the family type. He prefered keeping to himself. But that all changes for him when a young girl wants HIM to become her father. Awkward and unskilled at first, he must learn to care for another, and keep her out of danger... *Next Chapter in progress*
1. Chapter 1

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Well, this story has been nagging at the back of my mind for several months now so I think I'll go ahead and release it before it kills me. This is my first Naruto story and I'm slightly nervous about writing it with not only an OC, but also a slightly not as popular character so please give me some feedback, good or bad doesn't matter.

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Father Bear

_Drip… drip… drip…_

A large figure clad in black lay flat against the wall behind him tensely, listening for anything besides the sound of the water; the sound of an enemy. Five men behind him followed suit in similar positions. Hearing nothing, he slowly raised a hand before giving the signal to advance around the corner.

In a rapid flurry of motion all six jumped out from behind the edge and immediately into ready position. Much to their relief and pleasure, there were no adversaries or obvious traps. Warily, Ibiki Morino took a few steps forward. Few had ever gotten this far into the lair of Orochimaru and lived. Ibiki just hoped they would get out alive also.

It had been pure luck that a pair of ANBU Black-Ops had stumbled across one of Orochimaru's subordinates rushing to one of his lairs. After following the man to the hideout, they had immediately reported back to the village. Tsunade had been swift in sending out many elite Jonin and Special Jonin to take it over, including ten captains, one of which was Ibiki himself.

Entering the hideout had been dangerous right from the start, for they had to stumble through at least six different traps before entering into a long and poorly lit hallway. Following it, they had reached several different paths, and they split up into teams of six. By keeping in contact with headsets, they were rapidly taking over.

Already Ibiki had the blood of many beasts on his hands including a group of strange, mutated beasts that resembled alligators to some extent but fought with the speed and ferocity of tigers. After quickly killing them they had moved on, only to come across great bird-like beasts, gigantic tigers, and creatures that seemed to be part wolf, part bat.

The lair they had infiltrated seemed to be more of a lab if nothing else, and a very dangerous one at that, where the experiments were used as guards. However, as they got closer to the center, the mutants started to taper off and be replaced by traps placed at irregular, but clever locations. So far they hadn't even met one lab technician, which made Ibiki worry. Where were they? Had their infiltration plan been expected?

Ibiki pushed his thoughts aside and focused on the giant metal door at the end of the short hallway in front of him. After checking it over carefully to make sure there were no traps, he kicked it open with all of his strength. It was heavy, and so it opened relatively slowly before banging against the wall behind it. Ibiki stood at the ready with a kunai in hand. Once again, though, he needn't have worried. No enemies were there.

Instead, he squinted, trying to make out what this room was. There were no lights at all, but immediately his ears were drawn to the sound of sobs. Ever so cautiously he stepped forward, closely followed by the five masked ANBU.

It was like a prison. There were cells on either side with strong metal bars enforced with seals. Sniffing the air, he detected the smell of rotting flesh. Searching for the origin of the sobs, Ibiki looked to the right in the first cell. Immediately he stiffened and took a step back out of gross surprise.

There was the body of a man lying on the ground, his head propped up against the far wall. His mouth was hanging open and there was saliva dripping out of one side. Glassy eyes stared blankly. The man's face was contorted in terror and agony. It was clear from his pallor and expression that he was dead, as well as by the stench. Ibiki found a similar situation in the cell to his left.

Moving forward he checked to the left and the right of him as he looked for the one making the sobs. All of them thus far were dead; five men and three women. All appeared to be of varying ages, so it seemed likely that they were the victims of some kind of ruthless experiment. He could hear various sounds of shock and disgust coming from his companions. This was the most gruesome room yet. Then he came to the back of the room where there was a door and the last two cells. The one on his right held a mutilated body of a young boy, appearing to have been ripped apart by something…

However, in the left, there was a little girl. She was sitting in the center of the cell in a kneeling position with her forehead pressed against the cement floor and her hands on either side of her head, pulling at her long, messy and dirty black hair. Her body was racked with her sobs, and he could see her skinny arms trembling. Most disturbing was the purple energy that seemed to be evaporating from off of her body. It was like a curse mark…

Ibiki looked at the seal on the door in alarm. It wasn't one he was familiar with, but judging from the wording the seal pattern, it seemed to be a containment seal. How much of the evil chakra it could contain, though, he did not know.

Suddenly, the girl jerked her head up, more out of pain than becoming aware of their presence. Her eyes locked with Ibiki's, and he could practically feel the panic, terror, and fear reflected in her doe-like brown eyes. Their eyes remained locked for a second before she suddenly started thrashing and screaming as the dark energy intensified. Alarmed, Ibiki took a few rapid steps back.

The little girl collapsed to the ground, her fingernails raking into the cement, making them bleed. Her whole body seemed over powered by contractions as she tried to fight back against the force that was trying to overtake her.

"No… NOOOOO! JUST STOP!" She screamed at someone - or something - unseen. "I don't want to," she whimpered.

Whatever was pulling the strings, however, did not listen. Ibiki's eyes opened wider as something began to happen to her body. Two bulges in her shirt appeared before bursting out of her back and tearing the fabric, revealing two large, black feathered wings like a bird's. Odd scales started to sprout out over her legs, and Ibiki realized they were like bird legs. The same thing happened to her arms. Long claws sprouted out of them. Sleek, lengthy black feathers sprouted out in a tail behind her. Her skin became grey.

She locked eyes with him again, but this time her eyes were yellow with black around them. There was no doubt in his mind now that this was a curse mark. Although tears still flowed freely down her face, her sobs had been reduced to exhausted whimpers, and her eyes begged him to free her from her torture. He could not, for he had no way of knowing a technique to reverse what was happening to her body.

Again she doubled over in agony, and she screamed again, but this time around, the thrashing that accompanied it was violent. Her arms and legs flailed wildly, the black talons flashing. Seemingly without realizing it, she flapped the black wings that had just sprouted from her back and crashed against the wall, blinded by pain and fright.

Confused and hurt, she seemed to think that she was surrounded by enemies, for she struck out against the walls surrounding her with her claws. Every time she swiped her claws they were accompanied by a scythe shaped wave of dark energy. Even though they collided with the walls with tremendous force, the seal held tightly.

Despite the strength of the seal, the energy began to intensify around her. She crunched up into a ball on the ground as the energy swirled and condensed around her, seemingly of its own will, making her whimper loudly. Then suddenly in one big of wave of dark energy, she opened her arms and legs out straight releasing the powerful blast as she screamed again.

Ibiki was slammed back against the cell of the dead boy with enough force to knock the breath out of his lungs as the seal broke like a pathetic twig under the strength of the curse mark's release. He crumpled down to his knees as he regained his breath.

"Ibiki sir! Are you alright?" one of the ANBU called to him in alarm as the five of them held back a ways from the cell.

"Yes, I am," he replied after he sucked in a breath.

Looking up from his position on the floor he squinted through the dust stirred up by the blast to see the girl. She suddenly seemed very weak, and on the verge of fainting. Her knees wobbled, and she collapsed. Just as suddenly as the transformation had emerged, it slipped away again.

Ibiki waited for the dust to settle down before he rose to his feet. He paused for many seconds, watching for any sign of the energy returning. When he was satisfied that it would not return he walked forward carefully over the twisted metal door and stood before the girl's limp form.

He crouched down beside her and put two fingers to her neck. Her pulse was weak, but it was there. A tiny bit of black on her neck caught his eye, and he pulled down the collar of her shirt slightly to see it. It was no ordinary curse mark that he found there. This curse mark looked like spiraled talons, somewhat unique like most of the curse marks generally are. However, this one had a fourth black spiral, as opposed to three. It was a new one.

Ibiki watched for her breathing, and he could just barely detect it. The release of the curse mark had totally drained her, and she was severely weakened. If she didn't receive medical attention soon, it was possible that she would die.

Gently, he turned her over onto her back and picked her up. She seemed so light and frail in his strong arms, and she was so small that she just seemed to melt into his chest. He looked down at her face with a hint of sorrow. Even with his great understanding of the human mind, Ibiki failed to comprehend how anyone could do something so cruel to an innocent child.

Then suddenly, her eyes opened half way, looking up at him in a hazy manner and met his again. Her expressive eyes were different this time. Pain and fear had fallen away when she saw him, and now they silently pleaded with him not to leave her. As best he could, he silently assured her that he wouldn't. Then her eyes closed as she fell unconscious again.

He stepped out from the wrecked cell and faced his men. They seemed a bit surprised upon seeing the girl in his arms, but quickly became professional again when he gave his orders.

"This girl will need immediate medical attention. She is severely wounded and weak. I will take her back outside where the medics are waiting. Arata, come with me," Ibiki ordered.

"Well, well, isn't it kind of you to take care of my star experiment."

_I recognize that voice,_ Ibiki thought frantically as he rapidly whirled around. There in the metal of the door were a pair of yellow snake eyes looking out at him. Immediately his five men jumped in front of him in attack position and he backed up.

Slowly, Orochimaru demerged from the metal, his sadistic and cocky smile ever present on his face.

"How amusing to meet you here, isn't it Ibiki?" he said his silky but creepy voice.

Ibiki said nothing, but glared at him as he maintained eye contact with the twisted man.

"What's with the look? It's not like I've come here to kill you or anything," Orochimaru asked innocently.

"There are thirty-six elite leaf ninja in this hideout at any time that I can call to my aid. I suggest you leave before I do so," Ibiki said calmly, although inside his mind was racing. He knew that even with thirty-six ninja it would be extremely difficult and dangerous to defeat one as powerful and slippery as Orochimaru, especially on his own home turf. He seemed to know it too.

"As enticing as the offer for great bloodshed sounds, I'm afraid I am only here to do a check up of sorts. With all the noise going on it was impossible for me to continue my nap," he said in a mocking tone as he feigned sleepiness.

"I am pleased to discover that my little experiment is a success, and quite a little experiment indeed," Orochimaru continued, eyeing the small girl in Ibiki's arms. Unconsciously he pulled her a little closer. The snake man noticed and smirked.

"It appears you aren't going to give her up without a fight," he commented to the scarred man. "No worries, though, there won't be any bloodshed by my hand tonight. I acknowledge this base's surrender. However, before I leave I will at least let you know that I do intend to recollect my possessions at some point, so be sure you take good care of them," he continued in a mocking tone, his eyes clearly resting on the child.

Then, just as mysteriously as he had appeared, he once more melted back into the door, and his yellow eyes disappeared. Ibiki realized that he had been holding his breath, and he let out before breathing in again as he tried to still his racing heart. His men slowly lowered their guards before turning to Ibiki to give them their orders.

"Kan, contact the others, tell them what happened. The rest of you keep searching the base. Arata-" he nodded in the direction of the ninja, "- come."

Arata followed without a word as they ran down the halls back towards the entrance. They were silent for a long time. Ibiki did not want to speak, but sensed that Arata wanted too, but feared too.

"Spit it out Arata," Ibiki said finally.

The ANBU seemed a little embarrassed that Ibiki had read him so well, but replied anyway. "What does it mean… Orochimaru being here? And what is that girl to him? What talents does she possess? And by recollecting his possessions… does he mean that he'll even enter the village to get her?" the man said in a troubled and worried tone.

His scarred face furrowed into a frown as he thought in silence.

"Honestly, I'm not sure but… if Orochimaru was present here, than something was of value to him here. Perhaps it was the girl herself that made him come here, or the experiment that she was put through, along with those other people presumably. Maybe Lady Tsunade will be able to uncover what unique traits she possesses as to why she was put through that experiment to begin with. As for him retrieving her… it wouldn't be the first time he's entered the village undetected," Ibiki answered slowly and ponderously.

Arata fell silent again, and they were both silent for the rest of the way up to the surface of the underground lair. There they were met by two leaf Jonins. "Ibiki sir, Kan told us what happened. Is that the child?" he asked nodding to the figure in his arms.

"Yes," he answered. The Jonin on the right nodded.

"Follow us. Two medical ninjas are waiting for her."

Obeying, Ibiki followed the two men to back behind a massive tree trunk a ways off from the entrance to the hideout where there were numerous meds waiting for wounded. The two Jonin stopped by two middle aged women with dark hair and serious faces.

Ibiki dismissed the two men and awaited further instruction from the medical ninjas.

"Set her down," the one on the right said. She seemed the slightly older one of the two.

Ibiki did so and then sat back as he watched them begin their examination.

"Is there anything you know about this girl?" the older one asked as she checked her pulse and felt for anything broken.

"On her neck is a curse mark," Ibiki said in a low undertone. He detected a pause in the woman's hand. He continued. "It was just completing being accepted by her body when we found her. It was causing her great pain and seems to have severely weakened her."

"I can see that."

The medic put a hand to her forehead. "She's burning up. Kimiko, hand me a thermometer," she told the younger one.

Kimiko picked one off of the tray beside her and handed it to the older one.

"Thank you."

She held the thermometer in her mouth until the mercury had risen then took it out.

"One hundred two degrees," she said with a slightly surprised voice. Kimiko wrote it down on a clipboard.

Then the older one continued her examination. Ibiki waited patiently for her to finish.

"I'd say she's only about six or seven years of age. She's dehydrated and and malnourished, approximately twenty pounds underweight. Her chakra is critically low as is her heart rate and breathing, so she will need medical attention to bring all three back up." As the older one spoke, Kimiko wrote all of it down. Then without a word they began.

"You can leave if you want," the older one said to Ibiki in a way that subtly said she wanted him to go, but he didn't budge. "Suit yourself."

There was something about his little girl that he could shake off. Maybe it was her eyes that were getting to him. Looking at them made him _want_ to help her and reach out to her, something that was very unusual for him. Especially the way she begged for him. People didn't beg for Ibiki Morino to stay longer, they begged for him to go away. That made him want to keep where he was even more.

So Ibiki stayed…

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**There were a few gross images in there so I hope that didn't throw you off. The rest won't be as gruesome. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Ugh, I've spent an eternity away from this story. I had to write this paragraph by grueling paragraph as my brain tried to shut down and turn to other things. So, if it isn't too impressive, don't be surprised, because I'm merely relieved that I got it ****down at all. I'm just so geared up to get onto the meat of the story that this leading up to stuff is driving me crazy and clogging my mind. **

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CHAPTER 2

Two. Two hostages. Eighteen hours of extensive search, and this was the result? Ibiki stared down at the two lowly lab technicians as they tried not to make eye contact with him. He could tell just by looking at them that they were not of any kind of value. Low ranking lab geeks who followed out the orders of their superiors. They had probably taken too long cleaning up and had been captured because of their errors. Still, after all of the horrors they had participated in, he was somewhat looking forward to meeting them in the interrogation room.

This made his thoughts drawn back to that girl again. After about an hour the two medics had finished working on her and declared her stable. Since she was sleeping peacefully now, he had no reason to stay close by, especially with a base that needed securing.

Not that securing it had been too difficult either. It seemed as though someone had known they would be coming and everyone and everything of any value had been evacuated. Ibiki had no doubt that it was Orochimaru's doing. He had eyes and ears planted everywhere. After quickly checking up on the progress of his own team and the mission as a whole, he had resigned himself to trying to imagine what Tsunade would say about this. There was no doubt in his mind that this mission had pretty much been a total bust.

"Sir, where do you want the prisoners moved to?" an ANBU in a white cloak asked Ibiki.

"Take them to the village. HQ rooms seventeen and eighteen. Do nothing else until I return and give further instructions," he replied as he doomed them to many lonely hours in two interrogation rooms.

The ANBU bowed his head before he and three of his fellow ninjas grabbed the two lab techs and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Ibiki let out the sigh that he had been holding back. A Chunin came up behind him.

"Sir, the other captains wish to speak with you on the subject of a plan of pursuit," the man said.

Ibiki snorted.

"Pursuit? Orochimaru and his men are long gone."

The Chunin hesitated.

"Is that what you would like me to tell them, sir?"

"No, I'll spare you the trouble and tell them myself," he answered.

The man nodded, bowed, and disappeared in a smaller puff of smoke. Ibiki paused a moment to check for anyone else who wanted to talk with him before using his own teleportation technique to appear beside the other captains.

The area the captains were in was a sheltered tent formed from the base of a massive tree. Roots grew at strange outward angles creating a space beneath it. They were literally underneath the giant tree. Little grass grew under it for the lack of light, and mainly it was a dirt floor they sat upon. If they were to be attacked, they could defend it well.

The captains all sat in a circle, so they could easily see each other. Looking around with his eyes but not turning his head, he could see half of them appeared busy, either talking with other ninjas or getting updates.

"Nice of you to join us," a silver-haired man next to him said casually as he flipped a page in his book. Ibiki couldn't help but smirk.

"You certainly seem relaxed, Kakashi."

"I am," he answered. "Aren't you?"

"Unfortunately, yes. This whole plan of pursuit will be a waste of time and effort."

"I agree," Kakashi responded, flipping another page. "That's why I'm not thinking about it and catching up on my reading instead."

"Watch it, Hatake. You just might be demoted for doing something as careless as that," Ibiki taunted.

Kakashi shrugged. "Are _you_ thinking on topic?"

"No," Ibiki admitted.

"Well then I'm sure I'll be fine," Kakashi said with confidence.

Ibiki had to admit, having people like Kakashi around certainly helped make life a little easier. It was a shame he wasn't an ANBU anymore. He would have preferred having him to assist on more than just short notice missions like these.

He had to feel a little sorry for the man though. As soon as this mission was officially over, he had to return to a certain impatient, blond haired Genin who probably didn't appreciate his absence. It certainly was hard to forget Naruto. At least Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha didn't seem as bad, although Sasuke did him certain worry. Although it was still fairly unknown, he did possess a curse mark himself, and was one of Orochimaru's interests. Much like the girl he found, whose purposes were still unknown.

Letting his eyes wander around the circle of familiar faces as his mind worked, he could see some of the other captains were still distracted by subordinates and their questions, but that there were fewer of them, signaling to him that they would begin soon.

Ibiki took a moment to study each of the other captains and try to guess what they were thinking. Five ANBU, two of which he knew personally. He was sure one would suggest pursuit, while the other would not. The remaining three would probably lean to pursuit, as was an expected reaction with their training capabilities. Of the remaining five, he and Kakashi both vouched against pursuit. Of the remaining three, Asuma Sarutobi would most likely not pursue as would Genma and Shikaku Nara. He wondered if Shikaku would come up with a plan to satisfy all of them. Due to his decidedly higher rank as Jonin Commander, he was slightly at the head of this operation, despite all of their equal titles as captain.

Ibiki was great full Shikaku had been available; the only other available ninja of sufficient rank and skill was Might Guy. He nearly shuddered at the thought. If Guy had been a captain, he'd be miles away by now as he sprinted with inhuman speed after Orochimaru. Guy brought the expression, "you never look before you leap," to frightening levels at times.

Just as he had predicted, just a few short minutes later all interruptions ceased and it became quiet. Shikaku cleared his throat and began speaking.

"Let's make this as quick as possible so we can get going.

I believe that at this time we can all safely assume that Orochimaru and all inhabitants of his base have dispersed. However, how long they have been gone or fast they have moved is still unknown. Based on what we all know about Orochimaru, it wouldn't be much of a leap to say that he's well out of range. Regardless, there always remains the slight possibility that they were caught off guard and are still in close proximity. If they are, turning back would mean losing all of them.

My question for all of you is whether we should pursue or not. I'm voting for leaving it as is, for the most part. Meaning, that instead of sending out a full retrieval force, it should be a smaller force, so that they can make sure there are no targets in the area, but have it large enough to take any targets that they might possibly find into custody. What are your opinions on this matter?" he finished and waited for a response.

"Your plan of action seems valid. Although, there is a possibility that Orochimaru has more elite ninjas watching over his 'valuables'," Ibiki said.

Shikaku nodded. "That was a possibility I thought about. However, I believe that anyone of Konoha's ANBU are fully prepared and willing to take that risk." Shikaku glanced at the ANBU. He received several solemn nods.

"The ANBU are also perfectly capable of efficiently traveling quickly in a large force," one ANBU with discontent. He clearly was prepared to follow them all out.

"Rest assured, I have no doubt in your capabilities," Shikaku said appeasingly, "but regardless, there would be the matter of success again. To date, how successful have we been at capturing Orochimaru or his men?"

The ANBU who spoke before grumbled, "Not very."

Shikaku inclined his head in satisfaction. He scanned the circle with his eyes. "Any other issues of discussion?" Hearing only silence he nodded in closure. "Very well. All those in favor of a small retrieval force say "aye"."

"Aye," said Ibiki, Kakashi, Asuma, Genma, and two of the ANBU in response. The three remaining ANBU remained silent.

"I believe we can gather our teams now," Shikaku said after hearing the "ayes".

"Tetsu, you're in charge of ANBU retrieval," Shikaku said to one of the ANBU. "The remaining four of you get to work in organizing the squads. Genma, I believe I heard a request for some more protection for the wounded as they are taken back to the village. See to it. Asuma, stay behind here with the Analysis Task Force as they inspect the base for anything of value. Be sure there are no more of those beastly guards of Orochimaru's lurking about. Ibiki, Kakashi-" Shikaku paused to give them an apologetic yet somewhat smug smile, "- I'm volunteering the two of you to come with me and endure the wrath of Tsunade."

"Oh joy," Kakashi said casually as he rolled his eyes.

Ibiki said nothing, but his feelings were similar to Kakashi's.

"Alright, that's it. Let's get moving," Shikaku finished.

Then he stood up followed shortly by the others. The ANBU disappeared like shadows. Asuma and Genma each made a hand sign and disappeared in white smoke. Ibiki and Kakashi quietly stood and watched Shikaku. He turned and ran out from under the tree followed closely by the two as they made their way back to Konoha…

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Shikaku, Ibiki, and Kakashi arrived at the village early in the morning after six hours of travel. There was a slight drizzle and a light mist had settled around the walls. The leaves on the trees around the gate had just a touch of autumn color. Their shoes squished slightly in the damp grass and drops of dew made their feet wet.

When they arrived at the gate, there was a guard stationed there. He nodded as they ran passed. The sun had risen just enough to faintly illuminate the road they ran on. Few people were out at this time in the morning, aside from a few shop owners and ninjas. After running on the streets into the more heavily populated area of Konoha they took to the rooftops to save time as they approached the Hokage's building. After a few minutes they landed in front of her building.

Ibiki paused a moment and steadied his breathing. After running for so long, his legs burned with lactic acid. The trio stepped forward into the building and walked to the Hokage's office. Shikaku was about to knock on the door when it suddenly opened. Shizune stopped suddenly and looked at them with surprise, her hand still on the door handle.

"Oh, Shikaku, you're back," she said. Her pupils darted to the corners of her eyes in thought of Tsunade. "Um, Lady Tsunade is a little drowsy at the moment," she said nervously.

"Is she intoxicated?" Ibiki inquired.

Shizune couldn't suppress a smile at that. "Fortunately no, but I hope for your sakes that you have good news regardless."

The three men shot each other a furtive glance. Shizune noticed it and her smile disappeared. "Oh dear. Perhaps I should notify the paramedics. Kotetsu's _still_suffering from that concussion," she muttered more to herself than them as she strode passed them. The two of them exchanged one last nervous glance before they entered Tsunade's office.

As Shizune had said, Tsunade was clearly drowsy. She had her head propped up by one hand, her eyes half closed, and a finger lazily underlining the words she read on a paper next to a prominent pile of papers. When they entered she looked up and her demeanor changed completely. Her eyes shot open and she nearly jumped up in her seat as she straightened.

"Ah, Shikaku, Ibiki, Kakashi, it's good to see the three of you," she said with a smile. "I suppose you've come to notify me of your progress with Orochimaru's base," she said.

"Yes, my lady," Shikaku said with a respectful nod.

"Alright then, tell me," she said, turning more serious.

Shikaku cleared his throat before he continued. "The base has been successfully secured. We received minimal serious injuries to our forces sustained from lab experiments used as guards. However, none will be fatal. Several of his human experiments have been rescued in poor condition and will be brought to the village soon along with our wounded. Numerous ninjas are now combing through the base for any more information left behind," Shikaku paused a moment, dreading telling her the bad news.

"Good, good. So, how many of Orochimaru's men were apprehended?" she asked. Her smile had returned from his good news.

Shikaku hesitated. "Two, my lady."

At first there was no reaction. She studied him for a second, as if deciding if he was joking or not. When she realized that he was not, her smile disappeared to be replaced by frown. "You were only able to apprehend two of his men?" she asked incredulously.

Shikaku nodded.

"Who were they?"

"Their names are unknown at the moment, however, I believe they are nothing more than lab technicians," Ibiki said quickly, helping out Shikaku by shifting her attention as he anticipated the coming rage.

There was a pause, and then, "LAB TECHNICIANS? YOU SECURED AN ENTIRE BASE AND THAT'S ALL YOU HAVE?" she shouted as she slammed her fist down on the desk, splintering the wood. Despite themselves, all three of the men jumped slightly.

"It appears that they were aware we were coming. Several squads of ANBU have been sent out to try and find any of his men," Kakashi said. Ibiki could tell from the way his hand shifted to his hip that he was seriously considering using his Sharingan to dissolve the situation.

"They had better find something!" she shouted at a lower volume, though she was still fuming.

"They will do their best, my lady," Ibiki said quickly and reassuringly.

Tsunade paused a moment then shouted, "Shizune!"

Her black haired assistant came rushing in at her call. "Yes my lady?" she squeaked.

"Send a messenger hawk to those ANBU right away! Tell them that they better push themselves till their bones break and their muscles ache to bring me Orochimaru's men and if they don't there'll be hell to pay! I am not going to just let him slip out of my fingers!" she barked at Shizune.

"Yes my lady!" Shizune said as she scurried out of the room.

"Shizune! One more thing," Tsunade said in a more controlled tone.

"Yes my lady?" she asked pausing.

"Bring me some saki. I've got a headache," she said putting a hand to her temple.

_Heaven wonders why_, Ibiki thought.

The fierce tempered Hokage turned to them again and they snapped to attention. She noticed this and squinted at them. "Relax for the day. You're dismissed," she said. "For now," she added.

All three were gone just as quickly as Shizune. Standing side by side outside in the hall they stood in silence for a moment. "Well that could have been a lot worse," Kakashi said mildly.

"Yes… it could have been," Ibiki agreed.

"I think I've seen my wife in a worse mood than that before," Shikaku said with a chuckle. "Still, I have to feel a little sympathy for Kotetsu. It sounds like he got off a bit worse than we did."

"Yes. Though it was kind of her to give us the day off, despite the news. I think I'm going to head home. I really should finish my book," Kakashi said.

Even Shikaku rolled his eyes at this. "You do that. I'm going to home before Yoshino wakes up. She'll chew me out for that for sure," he said with a shudder. He glanced at Ibiki, who had remained silent and detached. "You should come over for breakfast," Shikaku said.

Ibiki shook his head. "I appreciate the offer, but I have other matters to attend to," he said vaguely.

Shikaku sighed. "Come on, Ibiki, all work and no play? Yoshino's not as troublesome as I make her out to be. Plus she's not a half bad cook either."

Ibiki smiled politely but said nothing. Shikaku watched him for a moment. "Suit yourself."

Ibiki watched as Shikaku and Kakashi started walking down the hall before he began his way to the ANBU HQ…

* * *

It didn't take Ibiki long to reach to reach the HQ. The multi-story building wasn't too far away from the Hokage's. While it looked like any normal building- perhaps a little drab from the bland concrete walls- the things that took place inside were far from it. Usually, they were terrifying. Still, the ANBU of Konoha still managed to feel comfortable there, just simply tuning out the screams of interrogated prisoners when near the few walls that weren't sound proof.

Ibiki stepped inside. On the first floor there was a receptionist and a small waiting room with several corridors and his office leading off of it. Despite the inner walls being just as drab as the outer ones, the receptionists had made an attempt to make it seem a little more friendly by adding a fake plant or two as well as switching the original drab metal chairs with more comfortable dark red chairs. Although her nice touches to the room did make it seem a little less imposing, she made no effort to do it elsewhere. The friendly factor was only needed for any visitors bringing the gift of information to relax a little. They most likely wouldn't go on any other floor than the first, for it also happened to be the "friendliest" floor of them all, with its hallways lined with offices manned by investigators and sometimes psychologists.

The receptionist herself was a surprisingly kind woman (though she could be the most horrendous of dragons at times) and relatively creative. Being very neat, her graying hair was always in a tight bun with not a single hair out of place. Usually dressing in either a professional appearing suit or simple dress of some kind, her clothes were always ironed with hardly a wrinkle in them to be seen. The name plate on her (naturally) grey desk said Mrs. Hirokoi. Ibiki often wondered what people thought of Mr. Hirokoi when he told them his wife worked as the ANBU receptionist.

When he entered, Mrs. Hirokoi looked up from the papers on her desk and smiled briefly at him before returning to her work. Ibiki walked passed the door to his own office and to the elevator on the other side of the waiting room. Pushing the button he waited. When the doors open he stepped inside the empty elevator and pressed the button for his floor number. There was a brief sensation of moving upward before it stopped, there was a ding, and the doors slid open again.

The hallway that Ibiki now stepped onto was different from the first floor. Now the corridors were somewhat dimly lit, and there were security cameras that had overlapping ranges to ensure that nothing was missed. The second he had stepped onto this floor he had been under surveillance. It was a security measure taken on almost all of the floors.

Striding down the hall carried by long legs, Ibiki passed by several doors, each marked with a number; 1, 2, 3,… When he reached a door marked "17" he stopped and turned the handle, entering. The room inside was almost completely dark and was occupied by two ANBU wearing white cloaks. On the other side of the small room there was a one way glass separating it from another room of roughly equal size. There sat one of two of Orochimaru's men.

Both ANBU turned as Ibiki entered the room. The one on the left had a monkey mask, while the one on the right had an owl mask. Closing the door behind him, Ibiki approached them and took a spot beside them as he watched the man through the glass.

He appeared nervous. Sweat could be seen on his forehead in the light provided by the room. His hands clenched each other above the cold table while he tapped one foot below. Shortly cut black hair and round glasses were the most noticeable features of his face. If Ibiki had to guess his age, he would say he was in his early twenties.

"What are your orders for proceeding, sir?" the monkey-masked ANBU asked quietly after about a minute of giving Ibiki time to watch the man.

"Have Kaito and Naoto interrogate him, and tell Yuudai and Takuya to let Takahiro and Hachiro take over the second man. Nothing physical yet. The four of you get some rest," he answered.

Both bowed their heads slightly before the owl-masked ANBU left the room. Ibiki watched the man silently for a short while more before he turned and exited the room. He wasn't in any extreme hurry to interrogate the two of them. They weren't the type that would have extremely valuable information, that he could tell. Still, if he didn't, Tsunade would be even madder than she already was, so it had to be done.

Having taken care of his last order of business, Ibiki decided to get some din- er, breakfast. He realized he hadn't even had dinner the previous night. Shrugging it off, he decided that he was in the mood for some beef. Ibiki had a favorite restaurant a bit out of the way of the main area of the village, ensuring that it was always a quiet and fairly empty location. Suppressing a yawn, he decided he would head home and get some sleep after that…

* * *

Tsunade read every word on the page with a vengeance, accenting each one mentally to dissipate some of her anger. Again, Orochimaru had slipped through her fingers. Just when she thought she had him her net, he broke free. It was infuriating. Suddenly the pencil in her hand snapped, and she realized she had been clenching it fiercely. With a growl she put the broken pencil pieces in a cup with several other broken pencils. _That's the third one in four hours._

Taking a moment to rub her temple, Tsunade took a sip of her saki, attempting to soothe her rage. It didn't seem to be helping to any extreme, though perhaps that was because Shizune had prepared it so. A knock on the door broke through her thoughts.

"Enter," she said curtly.

_Speak of the devil,_Tsunade thought as Shizune entered into the room.

"Shizune, you didn't happen to dilute this in any way, did you?" she inquired, holding up the bottle and shaking it from side to side slightly.

"Yes my lady, I did. You need to focus more on those papers than that saki bottle," she replied with scorn.

Tsunade grumbled bitterly and put the bottle down. "What do you need?"

"The wounded have arrived from Orochimaru's base. Several of the medics have requested that you come examine them," Shizune replied.

"How many of them are there?" Tsunade asked.

"Twenty-two. Twelve are Leaf Village shinobi and ten were Orochimaru's experiments," Shizune answered.

She grimaced at the thought. If they had been tested on by Orochimaru they were no doubt in poor condition, or at the very least, mentally unstable. "Alright, I'll take a look," Tsunade said, rising from her chair. Anything to get away from the paper work.

All twenty-two injured had been placed in the Leaf hospital, six were in critical condition. It wasn't as bad as she had anticipated it being. When Tsunade arrived, the sixteen who weren't critical had things as minor as a broken wrist to more serious but non critical injuries like non-fatal fractures or lacerations.

So while the hospital staff got to work on the non critical, Tsunade visited the critical. Her first patient was a man in his early forties, emaciated and scarred. He appeared to have been an experiment for quite some time. The nature of the experiments appeared to have been rapid healing techniques, and for the ones that had failed, he had suffered. It seemed a failed healing had occurred recently for he had several festering slashes down his side, causing a severe fever, shakes, trouble breathing, and serious infection. Tsunade spent a great deal of time working on him before letting the Leaf doctors take over.

The second was a woman in her early twenties. She was in better condition than he was. Although numerous scars suggested she had fought quite frequently, it was not a laceration that killing her; it was internal bleeding. Her red blood cell count was critically low and need to be recovered as quickly as possible. An hour later, Tsunade declared her stable and handed her off to the hospital staff.

She was about to enter the room of her third patient- a man in his late twenties- when two women stopped her. They both appeared to be in their forties, one with long dark hair, the other with medium length dark hair. Both possessed serious expressions.

"Lady Tsunade, we have a child that needs special attention right away," the one with long hair said.

"I'll see her as soon as I'm done with him," she answered, gesturing to the man.

"Please, Lady Tsunade, I think that you need to look at her as soon as possible," the woman insisted.

Tsunade took a moment to study her face. There was something there that said she was holding something back, something that couldn't be discussed in the open hallway.

"Alright," Tsunade agreed.

She followed the two women to a room two doors down. Inside, lying on the bed was a tiny, sleeping girl. She had black hair and limbs so skinny it was amazing she was alive. Her face was was contorted in an uncomfortable frown, suggesting bad dreams. Tsunade approached the bed and started examining her.

The girl's heart beat and breathing were faster than normal, adding evidence to the bad dreams. Her skin was pale and hot. She looked half dead already. Tsunade had just taken off her shirt to examine her torso for any injuries when she caught sight of the black spot on her neck. Eyes widening, she bent down to take a closer look. There on her neck was a curse mark with four spirals.

_Orochimaru… what did you do to this child?_Tsunade thought to herself, her rage returning. _If Orochimaru has indeed developed a new curse mark,_ _then he'll be using at some time. So, this girl must be his prototype then. Why… why does he always target the most innocent…? Why a mere child?_

Tsunade lightly ran her fingers across the curse mark. Her eyes narrowed slightly before she ran her fingers back over it again. The curse mark felt hot under her touch compared to the skin around it. Was it the cause of her fever?

Pulling her hand away from the girl's neck, Tsunade made a few hand signs, closing her eyes with concentration. Then she put her right hand back on her neck. Using this jutsu, she was able to "see" chakra, and how it was flowing through a person's body.

Tsunade gasped slightly when she saw the curse mark's chakra. The amount of it was enormous. It was if a dense ball of dark energy had settled in her neck. Moving her hand down over her body, she could see that the sinister looking chakra was traveling through her entire body. Tsunade moved her hand over the girl's entire body, only to find the chakra circulating everywhere.

When Tsunade finally pulled her hand back, she was slightly shaken. There were only a few people she had ever seen with so much chakra in their bodies before. In this tiny girl there was more curse mark chakra than in Sasuke. If she had to liken the chakra level to someone, she'd say it was equal to Naruto's.

As unnerving as the thought of that much dark chakra was, the thought of all that chakra being imprisoned in such a tiny body was even scarier. In Naruto, the chakra of the Nine-Tails was at times too great for him because of his size, or rather, lack thereof. He was too small of a vessel. But this girl, she was much smaller than Naruto, and she had to carry all of this chakra on her own. Tsunade feared that this would make her volatile.

"How was she found?" Tsunade asked the women.

"We do not know. It was Ibiki Morino who brought her to us. Perhaps he could elaborate on the details," the one with short hair replied.

Tsunade grimaced as she remembered that she had just told him to take the day off a few hours ago. Oh well, it looked liked her questions would have to wait.

"I will get her stabilized. She's in your care after that. If she awakens, send a hawk to me stating so. I want to see what she has to say when she wakes up," Tsunade said.

"Yes my lady," the two medical ninjas answered quietly.

Then the Hokage turned again to the little girl, and began her treatment. While she did so, questions buzzed around in her head like a swarm of bees, annoying and infuriating. As soon as the day was over, she was going to summon Ibiki to her office ASAP…

* * *

**So if you want to badger me about taking so long or complain that it seems kind of choppy or say it's good or whatever the heck, feel free to review. Based on the mental outline in my head, I am 96% prepared to say that Chapter 3 will involve our mystery girl more as well as Ibiki, so hold your horses ;)**


	3. Chapter 3

**My English teacher had been making writing one of the most repulsive, vulgar, and uninteresting things to do these past weeks. Never have I had a teacher do THAT to me. And worst of all, I have to endure her for not only cruddy English class but some stupid RTI class where we are learning "studying habits" by filling out sheets and doing math problems by following step by step procedures which we get graded on based on whether we underlined the important info and circled the question, then paraphrased it, then write out our steps, label each part of a math problem (not even my math teacher does that) and several other steps not worth mentioning. Pathetically enough, even if we fail this class (which is pretty much impossible to do unless you TRY to fail) nothing happens because it's not that important... Somebody either tell me this will pay off positively or be pointless so I can detirmine how much GANAS or "Burning Desire" energy that my previous awesome English teacher taught us about that I should put into this class. On the bright side, I only have her for about... 7 more months. Sigh... **

**On a more story related note, I feel like I had to dumb Ibiki down every so slightly because Narutopedia says and I quote, "He has complete knowledge of human psychology" and in this he had trouble understanding our little friend. Although, since it doesn't say anythign specifically about children, I suppose one could interpret that as he once knew absolutely everything but due to lack of exposure, ready practice, and experience that children are his least skilled subjects. Hmmm, I think I'll go with that. **

_

* * *

_

_Tap, tap, tap… Tap, tap, tap… Tap, tap, TAP! _

The messenger hawk began to grow impatient with the person on the other side of the glass. Humans were sometimes such stupid creatures, with senses so dull they couldn't hear a heavy beak knocking on a glass window. After all, didn't they realize he was tapping as hard as he could?

Still getting no response from the dumb blonde slumped at her desk, the hawk turned to the side on the narrow windowsill using his superb balance. Spreading his wings for stability, he lifted a leg and rapped rapidly and more loudly against the window.

RAP, RAP, RAP, RAP, RAP!

His patience was finally rewarded with the slight raising and turning of her head. Jumping up and down he screeched and beat his wings, eager to make her see him. Her eyes open and saw him, and she slowly rose from her desk. Seeing he was successful in his endeavor, he stopped what he himself felt were rather ridiculous antics, folded his wings back, turned to the glass, and raised his head, determined that this dumb human would not cause him to lose his lofty manner.

Reaching the window Tsunade opened the window and held out an arm for the bird to perch so she could bring him in and untie his message. The haughty fowl clamped her arm a little harder than necessary and when the scroll was in her hand and his duty was done, he gave her a sharp bite and then took off before she could potentially retaliate. He received some satisfaction from her little grunt of surprise as he flew off to a more competent person who might even serve him a mouse or two.

Meanwhile Tsunade shot the retreating bird a deadly look as he flew up into the morning lit sky. Her eyes turned back to the scroll in her hand. She carefully undid the ribbon tied around it and then unrolled the message. Her eyes scanned the first line, then widened and quickly read the rest.

_To the Hokage Lady Tsunade, from the leaf ninja medics of the hospital, in abidance of her request of the previous night, in regards to patient 13, a survivor taken from the discovered lair of Orochimaru._

_She is awake._

While the formalities might have been longer than the three word long message, it quickly set Tsunade into action. Putting the scroll down, she pulled a brush from her desk and combed through her hair and checked her face in the mirror before rising and leaving the office.

"Shizune, I'm going to the hospital," she shouted nonchalantly though the woman was nowhere in sight, knowing that everyone could hear her in the building no matter where they were. She heard a faint "Yes Lady Tsunade!" from somewhere in the halls behind her.

Exiting the building she made her way to the hospital which was fortunately only a short distance away. Entering the building she found with slight surprise the two serious women were there. _Waiting for me, were they?_

"Lady Tsunade," they murmured in unison, both bowing as though one entity. The Hokage merely nodded.

"You said she was awake?" she said eagerly.

"Yes. She awoke at roughly 5:40. She said nothing as we checked her vitals, and responded only with nods to any questions. We sent the hawk directly after this," the older said.

"Good. Take me to her," Tsunade ordered.

The women obeyed and led her to the room and opened the door. Stepping inside, Tsunade found the little girl was now sitting up in bed. The nurses must have brought her food for there was a tray with some pudding and water on it. She held the spoon, but seemed only interested enough in the food to push it around with her utensil.

However, she was very alert and the moment Tsunade entered her doe eyes were locked on her, watching her every move. Tsunade could not determine if it was through fear or curiosity. Her face seemed to have a little more color, and she didn't think her fever was as high as before.

Now that she was awake and looking a little more alive, Tsunade got her first good look at the girl. Her large brown eyes were her most defining feature, giving her the appearance of innocence and total alertness, which she had already started to express. Her face was ovular and she had a slight widow's peak. Although her cheeks seemed a little sunken in, they would probably fill out with regular meals, as would the rest of her emaciated body. Straight, black hair went down to her lower back, rather un-kept. She was slightly pretty in a childish manner. Other than that, she seemed completely normal. Accept for the curse mark. That one thing set her apart from normality.

Moving slowly- for she was still unsure of how the child would react- she came over to the side of the bed and knelt down to get closer to her eye level.

"Hello. My name is Tsunade. I am the Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village. You have been brought to the village hospital. We rescued you from Orochimaru's base yesterday. These nurses over here helped you get better. I was wondering; how are you feeling today?" Tsunade asked kindly and gently, hoping to coax her into replying.

She seemed quite shy, and was quiet for so long that Tsunade was beginning to doubt that she was going to reply when she spoke.

"I'm okay," she said quietly, smiling just a little.

The Hokage almost sighed with relief. The nurses said they had been unable to get her to talk. So she was making progress.

"Is there anything I could get for you to make you more comfortable?" she asked.

The little girl's eyes shifted around the room and came to rest on the window to her left. Tsunade followed her gaze. Some of the sunlight was coming in. A flurry of birds flitted past the window.

"Could you open the window please?" she said hopefully, almost timidly, as though expecting "no" to be the answer.

"Yes, of course," Tsunade said quickly, motioning to the nurses. Kimiko, the younger nurse, walked across the room and opened the window. The sound of birds, a breeze, and the waking of the village drifted in.

Looking at the little girl, she saw her mood elated. Her eyes almost seemed excited. Tsunade realized how little she must have received from Orochimaru and his subordinates, and how even the smallest of deeds would seem extraordinary to her. Taking advantage of this brief moment of trust, Tsunade acted.

"What is your name?" she asked.

"My…my name?" she seemed startled. "Why do you want to know?"

"I want to make sure you're cared for the best, and knowing your name makes that easier for me," Tsunade said comfortingly, smiling.

The girl swallowed. "No one… no one asked for my name in… that other place."

"This village is not like that place. Believe me, we will take care of you better than they ever did," Tsunade answered then held her breath, praying she'd get a response.

The doe eyes became troubled for a second, but she seemed to decide to trust Tsunade.

"It's Mejika."

Tsunade mentally poured herself a cup of saki. This was progress.

"Thank you Mejika. You have a beautiful name," Tsunade complimented, determined to keep going.

"Th-thank you," Mejika said startled.

"Mejika, what can you tell me about… the other place," Tsunade asked very gently, recognizing the delicateness required with such a tender, fresh wound.

However, Tsunade – naturally- seemed to have gambled a little too far. The paralyzing fear that flashed through her eyes was undeniable. The heart monitor beside her bed which had been stable and steady moments before increased suddenly.

"I…I can't, I can't think, go back… there," her voice shook and shuddered, terror filled memories tying her tongue in a knot.

"It's okay, it's okay, you need to talk if you don't want to," Tsunade replied rapidly hoping to undo some of the terror. _Drat, pushed my luck._

Mejika gave a tiny nod, but it was several more panting breaths later that she got her emotions under control. Tsunade knew that she had tried to run before she could walk, and it would take more time before she could get this terrified and terrorized girl to talk again. She decided to stop for today.

"Mejika, I have to go now, but if you need anything at all, just ask these two nurses. Okay?" Tsunade said softly, pointing to the two serious nurses.

"Okay," she said.

Tsunade nodded and rose from her kneeling position. She started to walk towards the door.

"Tsunade…?"

She stopped when she heard Mejika speak and turned back to face her.

"What is it?"

She hesitated for a moment. "You said to ask if… I needed anything, right?" she said.

Tsunade nodded.

"Where is the man who carried me?" she asked.

The Hokage was stumped for a moment. Man…? Who was she talking… Ibiki. Of course, the nurses had said Ibiki had brought Mejika to them. It had to be him. But why would she ask for _him?_

"He is at his home. I gave him the day off. Why do you ask?" Tsunade inquired.

"Well… it's just that… I felt safe when he was there... with me," she answered hesitantly.

If Tsunade had been alone, she would have burst out in hysterical laughter. This girl- this _child_- felt safe with the head of the ANBU Interrogation Unit _and_ proctor of the first stage of the Chunin exams? Adults- fully fledged ninjas, even Jonins and other elites- feared Ibiki Morino, the famed interrogator. Simply looking at his face could strike some with fear. Yet a mere child such as this felt comfort in his presence.

However, the logical part of her brain immediately began formulating a plan. When she had first come into this situation she had anticipated on being the one who would gain her trust and get the information that she needed, but here this girl had already taken the first step for her and put her trust in Ibiki. She would not be the keystone in this operation. Ibiki would. And she had a perfect idea for how to do it.

"Is there anything you want me to tell him?" Tsunade asked her.

"Could you ask him to come here? I want to see him again," she said.

Tsunade smiled. "It just so happens that I was going to be seeing him later today. I'll pass on the message."

After leaving Mejika's room, Tsunade immediately went to the aviary to get a bird and send word to Ibiki. Finding the suitable fowl, she wrote a quick summons message and sent the bird on its way. (While there, she also caught sight of "that lofty fowl" having his breakfast. Snatching a mouse just as he was preparing to eat it, she tossed it to another hungry bird. She left with a satisfied smirk, leaving him quite perturbed).

Knowing that the man would respond to her message swiftly, she got back to her office and hunkered down behind her desk and began to wait.

* * *

There were some sounds you never forgot as an ANBU. There were the sounds of war, blood splatter, and the distraught cry of one who had just lost a dear friend. And the tapping of a messenger hawk. A message could make the difference between life and death. And so, when Ibiki awoke to the sound of tapping on his bedroom window, he was instantly awake.

Leaping up with ease despite just awakening, he strode to the window and let the bird in. Great full for his timely response, the bird sat patiently for him and then took off without a protest when he had taken his message. Unrolling the scroll and reading it quickly, Ibiki rolled it back up and set it on his night stand and got dressed.

After finishing by pulling on his shoes and head cover, he skipped breakfast and set off for the Hokage's office. He nodded in greeting to the ninjas he met, but his pace did not change. Arriving at the building, he entered and walked to Tsunade's office. Knocking politely, he waited for a response.

"Enter."

Opening the door, he found Tsunade sitting at her desk. Stepping inside he closed the door behind him.

"Thank you for coming so quickly Ibiki. I would have summoned you earlier, but I did give you yesterday off so that would have been unfair to you. However, now that you are here, I wish to speak to you of a matter of importance. Do you recall the young girl that you rescued yesterday?

Ibiki nodded. "Yes my lady."

"I figured you would. I went to the hospital yesterday and examined her. The curse mark she possesses became an immediate concern of mine. I tried to get information from the nurses supervising her and from her when she woke up, but I had no success. You however, were the one who discovered her. What were the conditions you discovered her under?"

Ibiki quickly related the incident in the cell. Tsunade's brow furrowed when she heard of the bodies and the seal which had been so easily broken. When he finished she sat in silent contemplation. Ibiki waited quietly for a response.

"I see," she said finally. "From the sounds of it, they might have all been part of the same experiment. Although, I find it interesting that Orochimaru would use such a small child in an experiment instead of using another adult in her place. It seems there was something particular about her that he desired. Was there anything that you found in that cell that would explain that?"

Ibiki shook his head. "No, there was nothing."

"Hm-hmm," she mused. "We still have many unanswered questions then. However, giving your description of the curse mark's effect, sealing it will be a major goal. Unfortunately it will not be until she has built up strength that it can be sealed. Doing it before she has recovered from her current state would endanger her life. That being said, it means that her physical activity level must be kept to an extreme minimal until she is well."

"So she is to remain in the hospital?" Ibiki asked.

Tsunade's brow furrowed even more. "I don't believe that will be a plausible solution. For the next week or two at least, yes, it would be wise to monitor her. However, I do not think that forcing a child to be confined to a bed for weeks is very healthy or mentally productive, especially after going through hell and back like this girl has been. In addition to that, if she becomes well there will be no point in having her occupy a bed that could hold someone who really needs it. My main reason, though, is the fact of the security risks that would be involved by keeping her there.

You say Orochimaru was going to… "reclaim his possessions." My worry is that having her in the hospital would make her easily accessible to him, even if ANBU were to guard her. On the flip side of that coin, if he were to come and a fight were to ensue, it would be dangerous for the other patients and staff. Neither of which I want to happen.

So, to avoid all of these situations, I think a more logical situation would be to place in her a home with an elite ninja for both protection and to make the transition of coming to the village easier."

"Who will she be housed with?" Ibiki asked.

Tsunade gave him a smile that sent a tingle of unease down his spine. "As of yet I'm unsure, but I have a few choice ninjas."

He contemplated her with a wary gaze for a moment before responding. "Is that all, my lady?"

"Mmmm, not quite," she smirked. "Our young subject did make a request while I was there."

Ibiki gave her a questioning glance. "Yes?"

"She wants to see you."

Although a surprised blink was the only physical indication he presented her, his mind suddenly seemed to stop. Recovering quickly, he rapidly ran through and dismissed all possible reasons for why the child would want to see him again. He drew the conclusion that the Hokage was pulling his leg. He couldn't put it passed her, despite her status.

"You are… joking?" he asked skeptically.

Sensing his disbelieve, Tsunade let out a snort of laughter. "Ibiki, I know I may not be above trickery and such things, but have _some _confidence in me."

"So… you are not joking?" he asked, his eyebrow raised.

"Ah… no, I'm not. She actually did ask if you could visit her," Tsunade answered, mellowing a little.

He started to ask from thoughtlessness why she would to see someone like him, but caught himself and instead said, "Why?"

Tsunade shrugged. "Why don't you ask her? Her name's Mejika by the way."

* * *

Ibiki stood outside of the hospital beneath a tree, looking at the building with nervousness. He had left Tsunade's office nearly half an hour ago, telling her he was going to go visit Mejika. Mejika… doe. Her parents had certainly named her appropriately. He could still picture her eyes clearly. But why had those big eyes fallen on him, a battle scarred, dark man? Was it simply because he had pulled her out of that cell?

Being pulled out of such a dire situation by someone would create a powerful memory that was not easily forgotten, that he could figure out with his knowledge of the human mind easily. His face would have been the one she would have associated with being freed. The impact perhaps would be enough to make her see past his scars, especially since she had no idea of who he was or what he did.

The problem of meeting her face to face still produced a problem for him. What did she want to ask him? What if he couldn't come up with a response? Ibiki would be one of the first to admit that children were one of the areas he was least skilled with. Being happily single, he had no desire to have his own, and cared little for them when they were in his presence. Perhaps that was partly because they always looked up at him with fear. But she didn't. What would it be like to not have one so young see him with fear? He could not remember a child ever doing so before. Meaning that he was going into an unknown and untested situation, which made his cautious nature balk at the idea.

He did have one thing that was spurring him on, and that was the fact that he had told Tsunade that he was going to see Mejika (a statement that he was now kicking himself over). What would the Hokage have to say of the great interrogator after he skipped out on meeting a tiny, weak, girl? The potential injury it would do to his pride and not to mention his ego finally made him suck it up. He took his first step towards the building.

Hisoka was busying herself with filling out a patient's release forms when Kimiko approached her. Unalarmed, she finished filling out a section before setting it down and looking up.

"What is it, Kimiko?"

"Hisoka, Ibiki Morino is in the waiting room."

Slight surprise registered on the older woman's face. _So soon?_

"Good. Greet him and escort him to her room. I will be waiting."

Hisoka then went to Mejika's room which was just around the corner while Kimiko headed down stairs. She turned the handle and opened the door. She was slightly surprised to find the bed empty and Mejika instead at the window looking out. Upon hearing the door open she instantly jumped around in alarm, relaxed a little when she saw who it was, and then looked slightly guilty.

"I'm surprised to see you out of bed," Hisoka said.

"I-I'm sorry," she apologized.

"There's no need to apologize. I'm actually rather pleased that you feel well enough to get up. Although I would suggest getting back into bed. If Tsunade were to visit she might be upset. Speaking of visitors, you'll be getting one shortly," Hisoka said with a smile.

"Is it Tsunade again?" she inquired curiously.

"No, but it's someone you've met recently. Actually, you were asking for him just a little while ago," Hisoka winked.

The recollection in her eyes was imminent.

"That man who saved me?"

Hisoka nodded.

Mejika quickly scrambled back into her bed. Hisoka chuckled a little and took a seat in the room, awaiting Ibiki.

"She is in here," Kimiko said to the large, darkly clothed man as she opened the door, ushering him in.

Taking in a small breath, Ibiki entered the room.

The room was typical of the leaf hospital. The walls were white as was the tile floor. There were three chairs in the room suggesting she had been a popular patient lately. A vitals monitor resided by her bed, currently unused. The single window in the room was open, blowing the white curtains slightly, giving them a feathery quality. On the right wall there was a door which probably opened to a bathroom. And there, in the white sheeted bed, was Mejika.

His first (though technically speaking, _second_) impression of her was that she looked much better than she had when he had last seen her. The fear had left her eyes, and they actually lit up when she saw him. Her hair was quite a bit neater than it had been before, although not elegant by any means. The color of her skin had improved dramatically, changing from a near-death-from-fright-white to a normal and healthier fawn. His eyes flickered to her neck, but he couldn't see the curse mark. Her lips were drawn back in a little smile.

An awkward moment passed by in which Ibiki stood uncomfortably watching Mejika, and Mejika stared back at him, still smiling. Ibiki cleared his throat.

"How are you feeling today?" he asked her.

"I'm much better than I was yesterday, thanks to you," she answered. "You carried me out of that cell. Thank you."

Ibiki was taken aback for a moment. He recalled the medics had said she was only six or seven. He hadn't expected someone so young to thank him right off the bat. Perhaps she had been raised in a well mannered home before falling into Orochimaru's hands.

"How are you?" she asked him, drawing him out of silent thoughts.

"I am well," Ibiki replied fairly vaguely. He almost winced. _I am well?_ He sounded like he was talking to a colleague.

"I slept well last night," he tried to elaborate, "How about you?"

"I had nightmares," she said quietly.

"Oh," Ibiki replied. Bad choice of topic.

Hisoka and Kimiko shared a silent laugh. The fabled interrogator seemed quite stiff and unnatural around children. Hisoka would have loved to see him teaching a kindergarten class. It would be absolute torture for the man. Amusing torture.

Ibiki meanwhile was frantically looking around the room for something he could use to start a conversation with. What did kids like talking about? Games? What would a child in Orochimaru's cells have been exposed to? He doubted it was games. This was harder than an interrogation. He could simply ask a few questions or use a few methods of torture and have all the information he needed. Children however, had a different level of development than the average subject who ended up in his hands. His eyes fell upon the open window…

"Do you like the outdoors?" he asked. He knew from the immediate expansion of her smile told him that he had finally gotten it right.

"Yes, I love it," she answered him.

"What do you like the most?"

"Birds," she answered instantaneously.

"Birds?"

"Yes… I like birds," she confirmed, "they're pretty."

"There are many birds in this village and in the surrounding woods. I doubt many other places have more birds," Ibiki said.

She giggled. "I'm sure my village has more."

Ibiki, Hisoka, and Kimiko were immediately alert.

"Your village?" Ibiki inquired.

"Yes. We have birds everywhere. That's why it's called Sugakure."

_Sugakure; the nest. _

"So where is Sugakure? Do you know?" Ibiki asked.

"The Land of Birds," Mejika said.

Ibiki did not recognize it.

"Do you know where that is?"

"No," she answered seemingly nonchalantly, though probably because she didn't know the significance of it.

Ibiki fell silent again, the information he had uncovered exciting him slightly. Tsunade would want to hear about this as soon as possible. Discovering where Mejika was from could be the first step to uncovering why Orochimaru targeted her.

"Hey?"

Ibiki blinked back to reality. Mejika was looking at him with her head tilted slightly to the side in a curious gesture.

"Didn't you hear me? Are you alright?"

"Oh, yes, I'm fine," Ibiki answered feeling slightly embarrassed.

"So?"

"So what?" Ibiki asked with confusion.

"What's your name?"

"My name?"

"Yes, you haven't me your name. What it is it?" Mejika repeated.

"Ibiki Morino," the man answered.

For some reason the little girl began to laugh. Ibiki couldn't figure out why. Was she laughing at his name? He hadn't realized that it was that funny.

"Your name means, 'a snore in the forest', so… a bear?" she said still laughing. "Is that because you look like one?"

Ibiki chuckled. "I suppose so." So he was a bear, was he? Well, she apparently liked bears as well as birds. Although in his case it probably wasn't because he was very pretty.

Mejika settled down, but her eyes still sparkled. Looking at her eyes was like reading her mind. Ibiki wished all of the people he interrogated had eyes like hers.

"Do you want to know my name?" she asked.

"I already know it."

"Really?" she sounded slightly disappointed. "Then what is it?"

"Mejika," Ibiki replied.

The disappointment disappeared. "I bet you don't know my last name," she said with confidence.

"No, I don't. What is it?" Ibiki asked quickly.

"Rurikakesu," she said.

Ibiki was beginning to be in a very good mood. He knew the name of her village, country, and now her last name. Tsunade would be pleased. Speaking of which, he decided he should get back to her and tell her.

"Mejika, I have to go now," he said gently.

Her smile turned upside down. "So soon? Will you be back later?"

His mind hesitated. "Yes," he said.

Her frown reversed. "Okay."

Ibiki turned and caught Hisoka's eye. She nodded in understanding. Hisoka looked at Kimiko and when she made eye contact she motioned with her eyes towards Mejika. Kimiko understood without even a word and rose.

"Mejika, are you hungry?" Kimiko asked her with a sweet smile.

"A little," she admitted.

As Kimiko replied Ibiki and Hisoka slipped out the door like a pair of sly weasels. Closing the door softly behind her, Hisoka turned and looked up at Ibiki with a curious expression. Ibiki maintained her gaze, waiting for her to speak.

"You aren't a kid person, are you, Morino?" she asked.

"Not particularly," he shook his head.

"Hm-hmm," she replied with a smirk. "You'd better go relay that information to Lady Tsunade."

_So she figured that out, eh?_ Ibiki thought.

She seemed to read his mind. "Psshht. I might be getting older, but don't question my sharpness of mind so readily," she scoffed at him.

Ibiki shrugged seemingly without caring either way, earning him a scowl from the women.

"Oi, you better get to Lady Tsunade," Hisoka said.

* * *

For the second time that day, Ibiki strode into the Hokage's building, and then, after a quick knock, into her office.

"Lady Tsunade," he said with a respectful bow of his head.

"Ibiki; good, you're back," Tsunade nodded. Studying him for a moment, she seemed to draw a conclusion. Then she smiled. "So what have you found for me?"

"Her last name, the name of her village, and her country," he answered smoothly.

The Hokage's mood was elated, characterized by the great widening of her smile. "Very impressive, Ibiki. I must congratulate you on your abilities in interrogating children. Perhaps I should add that to your resume later."

"Preferably not," he said uncomfortably. While he could tell she was only teasing, he didn't want her to get any suggestion that he was willing to do this on a regular basis. She seemed to take the hint.

"So what are they?"

"Her full name is Mejika Rurikakesu. Her home village is Sugakure in the Land of Birds," Ibiki said.

Tsunade's brow furrowed. "Land of Birds? I've never heard of it before," she mused.

"Perhaps the nation is small and peaceful," Ibiki suggested. Both factors would make it a low priority to the Leaf Village.

"Perhaps," Tsunade agreed. "Alright, I will investigate into this matter to uncover more about her. And you can once again go home."

"Thank you Lady Tsunade," Ibiki said, unable to keep a hint of relief out of his voice.

Tsunade noticed it with a smirk. "You don't like kids, Ibiki?"

"Not usually," he replied.

"What about her?" she asked.

Ibiki paused a moment in contemplation. "I think… I like her."

* * *

**I had a few Japanese words in there and alas, since I do not speak the language, I hope my translation site was accurate. Also, you will notice that my chapters are never very long. This is because I become pretty annoyed with super mega long chapters because if I have to get up and go do something (which is often) or if I just want to take a break, there isn't a natural end-of-the-chapter break about. Not to say super mega long chapters don't contain great writing, but they don't work very well with my activity level. Again, I will apologize for any lack of effort that is noticed, I have been struggling to maintain focus writing while getting dumped by seven classes that are never organized with each other, resulting in possibly two to four assignments in a night every night including Friday. Ugh. I usually love school, but this year is not very fun so far. Except in history and math. Great teachers there. Homework rampent, though. And band, but it's hard to hate band. I might possibly edit later to make them cleaner if that is requested. At least I got this to you guys. I felt it was time to get out another chapter ;) Okay I'm going bed now bye. **


	4. Chapter 4

**I've had a lot of inspiration for this story recently. Just one more chapter and Ibiki gets the surprise of his life :D**

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* * *

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Aside from his meetings with Mejika and Tsunade, the rest of Ibiki's day was rather uneventful. After leaving Tsunade's office he went to the ANBU building to check in on the men captured and begin interrogating. His interrogations were quick. As he had predicted, they knew little about anything, and aside from being able to give him some vague out linings on some of the experiments being done, they were completely useless. Thinking about Mejika, he asked each of them if they knew anything about a curse mark experiment, but they didn't. He finally gave up and left his men to take care of them.

He returned to his office and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the receptionist Mrs. Hirokoi had gotten him coffee and a cinnamon role and put them on his desk. Regretting skipping breakfast, he ate hungrily and the food was gone in a few bites and the coffee down in a few gulps.

Then he sat down at his desk and began sifting through the medium sized stack of paper on his right. There were several stacks on his desk. The one on the far right was the unsorted pile while the others were the sorted categories. Then the filing cabinets behind him were alphabetized under categories. After seeing the horror that was Tsunade's desk, he was quite proud of the system he had made although he was sure Mrs. Hirokoi could have done an even better job and granted she had helped him with part of it when he first moved into his office.

_If that woman dies before I retire, I'm screwed,_ he thought. She was always on top of things and despite being just the receptionist she was perhaps the colleague that he conversed with the most. She certainly never failed to have coffee brewed in the morning. On top of that, she always seemed to know where everything was. If you ever needed anything, it didn't matter if it was a stapler or some kind of mid-evil torture device, Mrs. Hirokoi was sure to know exactly where it was.

Finishing his papers for the day, Ibiki left his desk and made his rounds throughout the building making sure everything was going smoothly. There weren't as many faces present as there normally were since many of them were still searching for Orochimaru, so it was fairly uneventful. At 5:30 he thanked Mrs. Hirokoi for the cinnamon role and started out the door.

"You should come over for dinner. It's been a while since you've come over and I think Akio's been missing your company," Mrs. Hirokoi said to him. Akio was her husband.

Ibiki shook his head and declined respectfully. The woman sighed.

"Honestly Ibiki, I think you need to spend time with people more. You spend all day freaking people out and then you just go home with hardly a word to anyone. It's not healthy. If I were your mother I'd be forcing you to come over. I can't even recall the last time you dated someone!" she nagged. Ibiki let her and grinned.

"How do you know I haven't dated anyone recently?" he asked. She snorted.

"Give me a break. I'm not that ignorant. Besides, I've even set up dates for you and you always find ways to weasel out of them."

"Have you considered the possibility that you aren't finding women that are my type?"

Mrs. Hirokoi laughed. "Honey, I have set you up with everything from retired ANBUs to chefs. If you've got a type, you'd better tell me because I sure haven't found it yet."

Ibiki could always count on the woman to amuse him with her fixation on getting him a social life. She was a persistent nag and sometimes it was too much even for him, but the fact that she was determined enough to set up dates that he never went to certainly showed she cared about him.

"So are you coming to dinner?" she demanded.

"No, but thank you for the offer again," he declined, turning to exit the building.

"I'll cook your favorite," she said in a sing song voice.

"Tempting, but again, no thank you."

She sighed and relented. "Fine, but I'll get you next time even if I have to drug you and drag you home."

"Duly noted."

He smiled as he exited the building and walked out onto the street. His smile resided on his face for a short while before it disappeared, returning his face to its normal, stony appearance. The sky had changed throughout the day and now there were clouds rolling in, smelling of rain. Determined not to get wet, he quickened his pace. Two blocks from his apartment there was a tiny restaurant that produced the most delicious barbecued meats as well as soup that rivaled even Ichiraku's ramen.

Deciding that he was getting hungry again, he headed towards his favorite meat shack. It was so small that it was hard to even find the name of the place above the front door (Kido's Grill) and so it was a guarantee that almost no one would be there except him.

Kido who was in his sixties and his daughter Aika who was in her late twenties ran the place. Kido cooked and Aika served the food and was the cashier. Kido had once been a ninja, but a crippling leg injury had caused it to be amputated and him to retire. Now he enjoyed a quiet life of serving food and spending time with his family. Ibiki was a regular customer and Aika smiled brightly as soon as he answered.

"Ibiki, I haven't seen you in a while," she commented as he sat and she got him a drink.

"I've been busy," he admitted.

"Well don't over work yourself," she giggled.

Ibiki couldn't help but smile at her. Ironically, Aika had been one of the many women Mrs. Hirokoi had set up for him and one of the few that he had eventually gone out with after much harassment. It had been nice getting discounts on food at Kido's Grill (though he always paid full price anyway) and Kido certainly had liked it. Aika was nice as well as pretty with her black hair, blue eyes, and kind smile, but he encountered the problem of being unable to see her as anything more than a friend. After a week his receptionist had given up, though not for long since she was always on the move.

"So how's Mrs. Hirokoi doing?" Aika asked after taking his order.

"Same as always I suppose," he answered.

"Still setting you up on dates?"

"Yep."

"You know, I have this really nice friend-"

"Don't start."

"I'm just teasing you," she laughed. Her eyes suddenly turned mischievous. "You know, I heard from Shizune that Tsunade's been planning something involving you. Shizune said that the Hokage wouldn't say what, but that you'd really… 'enjoy' it."

Ibiki rolled his eyes and sighed. "Great, just what I need. The Hokage wants to make me a guinea pig for something."

"I'm sure it won't be too bad. Say, who were you visiting in the hospital today?"

"How do you know that?"

"Small community, loose lips, big talkers."

"Ah, fine. Tsunade had me go check a recent patient of hers."

Aika gave him a 'don't-play-dumb-with-me' look. "Okay, even I can tell that's not half the story, and I'm not even an ANBU."

"Half the story I'm not at liberty to tell," he answered.

"Then tell me the other half."

"Alright fine," he said with a sigh. "I'm sure you've heard about Orochimaru." She nodded. "You guys found a base with nothing it."

"Pretty much," he confirmed. "There were a few of his... experiments there but nothing of any obvious value. Survivors were taken back to the Leaf Hospital."

"I'm guessing this patient of Tsunade's was one of them?" Aika asked, catching on. Ibiki nodded.

"So what's so special about this one?"

"We don't know yet. That's what she wanted me to find out."

"Well, keep it up. I'm sure you'll find out. You aren't one to give up easily," she said.

"Aika!" she turned her head at the sound of her father's voice. "Coming!" She looked back at Ibiki. "Your food must be ready."

She disappeared behind the counter and after a few seconds came out with his meal. "Enjoy," she said as she set it down on the table.

"Thank you," he said and then proceeded to eat.

Tsunade gave a large huff of frustration. If a ton of paper work wasn't bad enough, Shizune had come and dumped a mountain of geography books on her desk for her to look through for the Land of Birds. Okay, well, technically she had asked Shizune to bring her the books, but she certainly didn't have to bring so many. At least all she had to do was look in the Index and Reference sections before moving on to the next one. Within an hour, she had gone through over half of them and hadn't even had a glimpse of the words 'Land of Birds'. Within a second hour, she had completed the stack and hadn't found any references to the region at all. With a frustrated sigh she leaned back in her chair.

Having a sudden urge to go to the bathroom, she got up and nearly tripped. Swearing she looked down to see what had tripped her. She caught sight of the corner of another book half hidden under her desk. She picked it up. It was an old book and not a very big one. The writing on the front was faint and hard to read and it had a fairly gross old book smell. Flicking through it and reading a few pages though, she discovered that it gave detailed references to lesser known regions and was in frustratingly tiny but informative print.

Forgetting her urge to go to the restroom, Tsunade sat back in her and flicked to the index. She scanned the list then almost jumped up and danced merrily in victory as she found the words she was looking for; _The Land of Birds… Pages 112-116._ The place had only four pages to itself. Despite this mild disappointment, she eagerly flipped to Page 112 and began to read:

_The Land of Birds is a lesser known region even among the lesser known regions themselves. It is a tiny sliver of land between the Land of Earth to the north and the Land of Wind to the south. Having mountains and deserts all around, it is a secluded area with few visitors. Being in the peculiar position of being in between a vast mountain range and desert, it is wondrous as to how beautiful and blessed the land is._

_The people of this land are in a location that is mountainous towards its northern border and cooler and hotter and flatter towards its southern. The clashing of warm southerly winds and cold northerly winds causes rain to fall often, making it lush. It is almost entirely a rainforest, being more temperate to the north, semi-tropical in the middle and tropical the more one goes south until desert prevails at the very end of the land's extension, causing it to be in possession of a very dramatic change in terrain for such a small area. _

_To the north there are many mountain fed streams and rivers, and as nature would have it, the soil is eroded in such a manner that the lands right below the mountain in the middle section are very rich. In the north there are slightly colder temperatures than in the middle section where temperatures are moderate and easily livable, perfect for many crops to live in. In the south, the region becomes slightly more dry._

_All three sections of the Land of Birds have four slightly noticeable seasons. The northern section has more dramatic temperature changes due to elevation and has a growing season of about six months. Only the mountains at its northern border receive snowfall. The middle section is the finest balance of the north and south and has growing seasons as long as ten months, depending on the crop. Due to dryness and extremes in temperature during night and day the south has a shorter period of about seven months. _

_While the Land of Birds does not have a very large economy, it does have a stable one. In the north large livestock can be found in abundance in mountain meadows. They do not grow as much crops as the other sections. The middle has both livestock and large amounts of crops. Finally, the south tends to have smaller livestock animals, but also large amounts of cash crops in the growing season for the low elevation causes many areas to flood and become perfect for growing plants such as rice. _

_Perhaps the most prevalent similarity all sections have with each other is the amount of creatures for which the land was named for. Birds of an unfathomable multitude in variety can be found throughout the entire country. Songbirds, geese, ducks, swans, cranes, doves, hawks, owls, finches, and warblers just to name a few plus a whole multitude of rain forest birds. In all, over 2,500 species of birds have been recorded living here; a staggering number. Strikingly, only a few of these species are even endangered in this region. The people are very respectful of the birds and they are a large part of their lifestyles._

_It is not unusual that the people are so respectful and integrated with the birds of their land. Over 90% of all inhabitants have a unique keke genkai; Ichiwa Bero, more commonly known as 'bird tongue'. As the name suggests, it directly involves the language of birds. People who have this keke genkai are able to speak with and understand birds. No other form of keke genkai has ever been recorded in the Land of Birds._

_What is odd about this ability is the large number of people in possession of a keke genkai when compared to the numbers of other countries. The main reason is that nearly nine hundred years ago before the country had been settled, the people with Ichiwa Bero lived in the Land of Earth. It was a large clan and much more involved with fighting than it is now. War and mistrust eventually caused the entire clan and a few families tied to it through marriage and other bonds to emigrate from the country to where it is now. At that time a large amount of the emigrants already possessed Ichiwa Bero and so it remained prevalent. _

_An interesting side effect of none-Ichiwa Bero genes has been noted. Individuals who have many ancestors who don't have the keke genkai often have a more diluted version of the keke genkai. They may have more trouble quickly and easily comprehending the language of the birds they are speaking with. Some cannot understand certain types of birds at all due to the slightly different dialogues possessed by different types of fowl. About 20% of the 90% who have the keke genkai have a slight to moderately diluted keke genkai while another 10% have a moderately to highly diluted keke genkai. The type of bird an individual can associate with the easiest is typically that person's preferred bird of choice and most prevalent companion. In this case, that particular kind of bird is referred to as the person's bonded type. _

_The lifestyles of the inhabitants are closely associated with birds. This is true perhaps more in the capital of the country than any other place. It is an architectural wonder. Part of the village is underground as well as on the ground, and even in the trees. _

_The part that is in the trees is by far the most impressive of the three elevations. Bridges and houses are constructed from the massive trees. Ladders are commonly used to get into and out of houses, as well as ramps, something akin to a slide, and an elaborate pulley system. The slides in particular are used in transporting goods down to ground level or below ground level. Here, bird song can be heard all day from the thousands of nests hidden in the leaves. Likewise, this is where most of the human dwellings are also._

_On the ground level is the industry level where all normally found businesses can be found. It is similar to the form of most villages. Most structures are made from wood or imported stone and concrete. The majority of the population is farmers, wood workers, tailors, butchers, and bird trainers. Fewer houses are found here than in the trees._

_Then finally, the below ground level. Here is where supplies are stored either in waiting to be shipped to a different location or to be used upon a later date. The tunnel system is based on ants and termites so it is there for very complex and well organized. There are circular holes in the ground that open up to the underground so that supplies can be lowered, then shipped to various rooms. In one section there is even a large underground river to ship supplies downstream. It is an impressive and well built system. _

_The citizens of the village are always hard at work. They are restless and always on the move, as well as the birds they work- yes!- work. Many birds have been trained to work together in teams to complete tasks around the village. They assist in using the pulley system to move items, carrying items for people, sending messages, and cleaning things. They are not unlike the ninja hounds that are most prevalently used in the Land of Fire. Unlike the hounds, however, few of the birds are ever trained to be the companions of shinobi, and they are far more wide spread being found working virtually anywhere, technically making them more useful then the hounds. Even young birds can be quickly trained how to help the village. _

_In return for their willing service, the birds are treated kindly and eat side by side with the people, provided with places to nest, and protection from many creatures that would harm them. There are more birds here in relation to population than anywhere else in the Land of Birds, though nearly all locations work with birds. Due to the influence in numbers the birds have, the capital is there for appropriately named Sugakure; the nest._

_The Land of Birds has few shinobi unlike the lands around it. It has no enemies and only rarely has it ever been known to even quarrel with other regions. As such, shinobi are not in high demand. However, those that are shinobi can be guaranteed to be some of the best, brightest, unique, and mysterious._

_Nearly all of the shinobi of the land come from one clan; the Rurikakesu Clan. This clan is named after the lovely Lidth's jay and it is this bird on their family crest. When the Ichiwa Bero Clan still lived in the Land of Earth, it was the Rurikakesu family that was at the head of it. Nearly all members of this family were elite shinobi and great intellectuals. Even today they still lead the country, though now that the original Ichiwa Bero Clan has become more dispersed throughout the Land of Birds, Rurikakesu is now considered a clan of its own as are other families who live here._

_It is difficult to receive information from the Rurikakesu shinobi, for they are very secretive about their jutsu and fighting styles and do not elaborate on the details of their traditions either. Only those who are members of the clan can learn their techniques. Only 2% of the members of the clan do not have a completely pure and non-diluted keke genkai. The marriage system is very close knit and marriages where both members have strong Ichiwa Bero are the only marriages supported. This keeps the Clan's ability pure and its ninjas strong._

_Only three techniques have ever been observed by non-members, but no official names have ever been provided. The first is an eagle clone. This technique is exactly like the similar shadow, water, and earth clones, but in this case after the clone is dispersed a large eagle comes out of it and attempts to attack the destroyer of the clone before disappearing itself. The second is a swarm of any kind of bird that is summoned that surrounds the enemy- biting, scratching, and pecking them- as well as confusing them and obscuring the summoner from view. And third is a personal technique that obscures someone with birds long enough for them to flee to safety. _

_They are masters of intelligence gathering, able to use any bird anywhere in the world to spy. They have even been known in the past to turn an enemy's bird against him their influence is so strong. How they can control birds so solidly has only one possible explanation that can be seen and that is their extensive bond with the animals. All that can be said for sure about the shinobi with so little knowledge about them is that they have an evasive style as well as rely heavily on the bonds they have with their feathered companions. _

At this point Tsunade stopped reading, for the final paragraph of the section was only a summary. Leaning back in her chair her mind absorbed what she had just read. It had just been a fairly detailed over view of the main points of the land, but it was informative. _So, little Mejika is from the the grand Rurikakesu shinobi Clan, renowned for their Ichiwa Bero keke genkai, elusive fighting styles, and spying abilities, _Tsunade recapped to herself. _No wonder Orochimaru wants her. If he could control her he could spy on anyone anywhere. _

Her mind thought a more grim thought. _I wonder… was this whole thing a trap, us finding her? Is she already spying for him? _Tsunade recalled what Ibiki had said and the reactions she had seen from the child. _No… she isn't spying for him. It is impossible to fake what she did. Then why did he let Ibiki take her from him? Why did Orochimaru let us bring her here? And why a child? Is he trying to play on my affections for them, making me unsuspecting? I don't like this._

Then Tsunade smiled as an idea crossed her mind. _Maybe, though, we could turn his own strategy against him. If Mejika has that keke genkai, then her coming here could be the best thing that's happened from this whole stupid ordeal. Her ability could be used against him to spy on him instead of us. And if I did miss something… if she is his spy, though I doubt it highly… Ibiki will be able to detect it._

She leaned forward again and clapped her hands together, her smile unfolding. _Then it's settled. I'll need Ibiki first thing tomorrow morning._

Glancing down at the book again she got another idea. Grabbing a sticky note pad she wrote something down. Tearing off the note, she stuck it to page 112 then closed the book.

"SHIZUNE!" she yelled.

The poor assistant had been in the process of filling out a document a few rooms over. Her writing hand jerked leaving a long slash of fresh ink across the page. Shizune grimaced when she saw it. _Drat, I'll have to redo this entire thing later._

"Coming, Lady Tsunade!" she called back, though not quite as loud or intense as she scrambled up from her seat and quickly walked to the Hokage's room.

"Lady Tsunade, you really should come up with a better way to summon me than yelling," she complained to her friend as she walked into her office.

"Later. Shizune, I need you to get this book to Ibiki Morino," Tsunade said holding out the old book she had just finished reading out of.

Shizune called scent of it and wrinkled her nose. "That smelly thing? But why-"

"Shizune, this is important. I don't really care how it smells right now," Tsunade interrupted.

Shizune looked at the old thing then at Tsunade, then back at the book. "Alright fine," she sighed taking it.

"Thank you, Shizune," Tsunade said as the woman walked out of the room.

"As long as you don't start giving me smelly books to read," she muttered under her breath as she took out a can of air freshener and sprayed the dingy thing in an attempt to make it smell a little nicer.

"Kotetsu, can you take this to Ibiki Morino's home?" Shizune said passing by the guard and part time assistant of Tsunade.

Kotetsu looked at the book and then at her incredulously. "An old, smelly book? You and Tsunade have me run the weirdest errands," he said scratching his head, though he took the book anyway.

"Thank you Kotetsu," she said sweetly.

"Yeah, yeah," he said waving it off.

Ibiki took his time eating at Kido's Grill as well talked with Aika. By the time he headed home to his apartment it was almost seven. The clouds had finally given in and it had rained. Walking home there was a light misty rain. Within ten minutes he walked up the three steps to his front door.

He would have gone straight in if he hadn't noticed something right in front of the door. It was a book. He picked it up to examine it. It looked and smelled exactly like an old, slightly moldy book that had been sprayed with lavender air freshener. Wondering for a moment if this was a joke and if so who was behind it, he noticed the sticky note. Flipping the book open to the note he read it:

_Ibiki, read pages 112-116 tonight. _

_Come to my office at 10:00a.m. tomorrow._

_I need to speak to you. _

_-Tsunade_

Examining the title of the section he realized why she had sent him the book. It said in big, faded black letters: _The Land of Birds_.

Unlocking his door he entered with the book. Ibiki had a modestly small though pretty bland apartment. The front door opened into the living room where he had a dark blue couch, coffee table, reading lamp, bookshelf, and small TV which he rarely watched. The walls in the living room were a pale sort of nice tan color and darker carpet. Across from the front door on the other side of the living room was a sliding door that opened to a small wooden deck area that wasn't big enough for much, but was still pleasant to sit out and read on.

His kitchen was a little nicer. There was an island that separated the living room from the kitchen area that was 'L' shaped, the lower portion of the 'L' facing the wall to the left of the front door, so there was an opening into the kitchen on either side of the island. All the kitchen surfaces and cupboards were wooden including the island. He had a fridge with a decent food supply in it although if he did cook it was never anything elaborate, and one could tell from looking at his speckles stove. Everything had its place and the countertops were clean and clear.

The right corner of the kitchen was one of the openings created by the island and parallel to it was the wall that separated the living room from the bedroom. There was a short hallway in between the bedroom wall and the kitchen. The bedroom door was about halfway down the hall. There was a double bed with midnight blue sheets, a bedside stand with a lamp, closet, and a second, smaller bookshelf.

There were two more doors on the other side of the hallway. The first was a bathroom and the second was a second bedroom converted into an exercise room with a treadmill and weights equipment for when he wasn't in the mood to go out to exercise.

Having no need to cook tonight, Ibiki removed his shoes just inside the door where there was a small linoleum area and then went straight to the couch and and started reading. It didn't take him long to read it, though his eyes were strained by the time he got done from squinting. Ibiki was impressed that Tsunade had found it at all. Judging from the state of the book, it probably had been the last one chosen to be looked at in a stack of books. It was detailed, though obviously it focused more on the high lights of the region. Despite this, he was satisfied with the information.

Now his mind was able to ponder the information and figure out how it fit with Mejika. He hadn't anticipated her being from a clan such as the Rurikakesu after reading what little description could be given of it, though it did explain a large part of why she had been chosen. He wondered if she had yet learned any of their shinobi's techniques or if she had been too young to learn them when taken by Orochimaru.

There was one thing that concerned him greatly. Looking at the first page of the book, he discovered that it had been written almost forty years ago. At that time the Land of Birds had apparently been stable and had a large population. If Orochimaru had been there, though, what was it like now? The Rurikakesu Clan had clearly survived the forty year gap, but there was no way of knowing if anyone was left after the Sannin's visit, except to send ninja there. Perhaps Mejika would be able to shed some light on the subject.

Regardless, Ibiki prepared to ask Tsunade about sending a team of ANBU to the Land of Birds to discover what had happened to it as soon as possible. It was possible they could help the land fend off Orochimaru, and even establish some kind of alliance. Who knew, maybe Mejika still had some living relatives they could find.

Ibiki yawned and glanced at the clock on the wall. It was fifteen minutes passed eight, yet he was exhausted. He decided he needed to get a good night's rest. Ibiki rose off the couch and set the book on the coffee table. Going to his bedroom he undressed and climbed into bed. He was asleep almost instantly…

* * *

**I thought I'd give a little bit of information on Mejika's home. It will be come more important later (at least I think... I'm kind of thinking this up as I go along ^^;)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Wow, it's been a while since I've updated any of my stories. Sorry'bout that. I had this chapter ready about five days ago but every time I went to put it up to read I'd get an error report so I couldn't do a thing. That aside, it's here now!**

* * *

Ibiki awoke to his alarm clock blaring. Crankily he slammed his hand down on top of it. Opening his eyes, he found the room dark. A quick glance at the alarm clock confirmed that it was five a.m. Sitting up, Ibiki fumbled in the dark for a moment before finding the knob of his bedside table and pressing it. He squinted his eyes closed at the sudden assault of light on his eyes before slowly opening them again. With a yawn and a quick stretch of his arms, he got up.

In a few minutes Ibiki was dressed and walking down the hall to the kitchen. While he was more awake, he was still unexplainably tired despite having a long night's sleep. He pondered a moment on what to have for breakfast before simply settling on cold cereal. After eating and rinsing his bowl in the sink, he was ready.

He put on his shoes and as one last final readying measure grabbed the book Tsunade had given him and put it in the inside pocket of his coat. Ibiki exited his home and began on his way. He arrived at the ANBU HQ at 5:33. Even though he had to meet the Hokage today, he still had to work. Walking through the door, Ibiki was greeted by Mrs. Hirokoi.

"Good morning Ibiki. Did you sleep well? You look a little tired," she asked.

"Well, I slept a long while, though I don't feel very rested," Ibiki answered.

"Yes, I've had days like that. Seem to be getting them more often these days. Must be getting old," Mrs. Hirokoi replied with a sigh.

"Your husband's ten years older than you," Ibiki said to make her feel better.

"True," she nodded. "True."

"Listen, I have to go to the the Tsunade's office at 10:00 am this morning."

"Alright. I'll be sure to mark that," she said with a nod as she wrote something down on piece of paper.

Their conversation came to an end and Ibiki went into office. Taking a seat at his desk, Ibiki glanced at the clock and calculated how much time he had before he headed to Tsunade's assigned meeting time. Four hours and fifteen minutes, he thought. It would take about ten minutes to get there. Ibiki started reading papers.

Ibiki heard a knock on his door. "Enter," Ibiki said. The door opened and an ANBU walked in. Ibiki recognized him immediately as one of the ANBU assigned to lead the search for Orochimaru. "So, you're back, eh?' Ibiki said. "What did you find?"

"Nothing sir. Orochimaru and his men were not in the area that my squad searched," the man answered.

Ibiki nodded. "I figured as much. I did not anticipate on you finding anything. Have any of the other squads returned yet?"

"No sir."

"Very well then. You are dismissed."

The man bowed and then walked out. Ibiki returned to his papers.

* * *

7:05 a.m.

Tsunade entered the hospital, her clicking heals the only sound in the empty front room. The hospital didn't seem very busy this morning. Hisoka and Kimiko were no where in sight this time. A different woman was behind the front desk today. Tsunade headed up to Mejika's room which was on the second floor. When she arrived on the second floor she caught sight of Kimiko preparing some medicine next to a tray of food.

"Kimiko, how is Mejika?" Tsunade asked approaching her. Kimiko turned her head in acknowledgement though her fingers kept moving.

"She is doing well. I am just readying her steroids," Kimiko responded as she finished and set the pills on the tray of food. "Hisoka is reading to her. She found a bird book and thought showing it to her might help her open up."

"Very clever," Tsunade said with approval.

Kimiko picked up the tray and walked to Mejika's room. Tsunade followed. The door was open and Tsunade could hear voices inside. She followed Kimiko in.

Mejika and Hisoka were sitting on the bed. Between them in Hisoka's hands was a medium sized book with pictures of little song birds on the front. Mejika had apparently looked up from the book when she heard Kimiko enter, but the sparkle in her eyes stated that she was enjoying the book very much.

"Lady Tsunade," Hisoka said respectfully with an inclination of her head.

"Hello Tsunade," Mejika said in a more relaxed manner.

"Good morning," Tsunade answered to both of them. "How is that book, Mejika?"

"I really like it. A lot of the birds I know, but even more I don't know," she answered excitedly. "Come look at this one!"

Tsunade complied and approached the bed. Leaning over slightly she saw the picture of a pretty bird with blue wingtips and head, rusty reddish breast body, black tail with a white tip, and a black forehead. The description was titled Lidth's jay.

"This bird is all over my village on buildings and door and crests. My house had birds like this living all around it. There was a pair of birds that always built a nest right above my window and sometimes they'd come in my room and sing for me. The father bird had a really pretty song," Mejika chattered.

Tsunade was astounded. Mejika had just spoken more words in one minute than she had during her entire visit yesterday. Hisoka had not been mistaken; reading the book to her was making her open up.

"It is a very pretty bird," Tsunade commented.

"Yeah it is. I really love their song though. They have such pretty voices," Mejika said with an almost dreamy look in her eyes as she thought about the bird. Then her smile slowly disappeared. "Tsunade?" Mejika asked with sudden worry, "Do you think… my home's okay?"

Tsunade's eyes dropped to the side, away from the girl's large inquiring ones. Her question brought to life to her own questions once again. Even she didn't know the true answer to that, although she anticipated it would be a bad one. Maybe… just maybe though, it would be okay. Tsunade looked back to find Mejika still looking at her. Tsunade put on a smile. "I'm sure they're fine," Tsunade said with false confidence.

Mejika looked at her before she slowly smiled and nodded. Tsunade decided to get to the point of her visit.

"Mejika, did you enjoy Ibiki's visit?" Tsunade asked.

"Yes, I did," she nodded quickly.

"Would you enjoy being to spend more time with him?" Tsunade asked.

"Yes, very much. I would like him to visit a lot," she nodded again, this time more vigorously.

Tsunade smiled. "Actually, I had something even better then visiting in mind. You see, I was thinking that as long as you stay here in the village getting better that you could stay with him."

"In his house?" Mejika inquired with surprise.

"In his house," Tsunade confirmed. "You would live him."

"I'd get to spend a lot of time with him then!" she said. Tsunade nodded.

"But… wait, is it okay with Ibiki if I stay in his house?" Mejika asked.

"Oh don't worry about that. It will be alright with him," Tsunade said with a chuckle. _Whether he likes it or not._

"Then yes, I would," she said.

Tsunade smiled wide. "Good, very good."

* * *

9: 59 a.m.

Ibiki knocked on the Hokage's office door. "Enter!" sounded from within. Ibiki strode in silently. The Hokage was sitting behind her desk, an odd smile on her face as she stared at him. Her smile seemed predatory to Ibiki, as though she were about to do something she believed he would find unpleasant. He recalled Aika's words about Tsunade planning something and sincerely hoped she had been wrong. If it was unpleasant, he would do it regardless, but who ever want to do unpleasant things?

"Ibiki, I'm pleased you arrived on time," Tsunade began. "I assume you read the book?"

"I did," he replied as he walked forward and set it on her desk.

"Good. What are your thoughts in regards to it?" she probed.

"I would like to request permission to send ANBU to investigate the Land of Birds for any signs of disturbances and clues as to what Orochimaru did there. I suggest doing it after those assigned to finding those escaped from the base return, which shouldn't be too long since the first squad just returned a short while ago with nothing."

Tsunade nodded. "Your request is sound and approved of. I will tend to legal matters regarding entering another country's borders without invitation, which shouldn't be too long due to Orochimaru's involvement and the dislike of so many countries towards him. I too am curious as to what he has been doing in the Land of Birds, being able to capture a member of the Rurikakesu Clan. Speaking of which, did anything interest you regarding her family?"

"Honestly, I was fairly surprised she came from such a clan. I did not anticipate on her coming from a warriors clan, although that may be at least part of the reason why Orochimaru chose her. The main reason, though, is probably the ability she possesses; the keke genkai. She would make a very good spy with the ability."

"Yes, I thought so also," Tsunade nodded again in agreement.

"Now, there is one thing I want to talk to you about," Tsunade said changing subjects. Ibiki waited.

"This morning I visited Mejika. She was doing fine. Quite a bit more energetic than yesterday, actually," Tsunade said gladly. "Soon she will be well enough that she can leave the hospital. The only question is to where," seemingly impossibly, her smile broadened even more, "and I have decided that for the duration of her stay here in the village she shall stay with you."

Ibiki completely froze for a moment with word on his mind; _no._

"You cannot be serious about this," Ibiki protested.

"I am," Tsunade answered.

"With all due respect, Lady Tsunade, I am not the best person for housing a child," Ibiki disputed. "One of the teachers at the school would be better. Iruka Umino for example, or one of the hospital staff."

"As true as that may be, there is something that you possess that they and no one else here has," Tsunade said.

"What?"

"Her trust."

"_Her trust?_"

"Yes. When I went to her that first time, she asked for you, no one else. It was you she wanted to see. She had already put her trust in you before she even knew your name, something she has not even done to me or the nurses supervising her. Mejika needs to be protected and examined. It is possible she has information on Orochimaru that she doesn't even realize that she has. You are the perfect person to extract that information. And she will be here for a while, so she deserves to be with someone that she is comfortable around."

"I'm sorry, but, taking care of a child… how do you… how am I… I am not the type of man who has ever wanted to be a parent. How am I supposed to take care of a child now?" Ibiki protested, despite grudgingly agreeing with her reasoning.

Tsunade merely waved away his question with her hand like a fly. "You're the head of the ANBU Interrogation Unit; I'm sure you're there for intelligent enough to come up with something."

"I don't have room for her in my home at the moment," Ibiki objected more weakly this time.

"Then make room. I'm giving you five days before I'll have Mejika discharged. She should be well by then," the Hokage replied. She could see that Ibiki was still persistent in his endeavor to convince her otherwise. The first bit of annoyance creased her brow.

"Regardless of your reasons contrary, you have little say now for I have already made it an assigned mission," Tsunade said, "You're mission is a B rank; assignment the protection and housing of Orochimaru's possible target for experimental reasons."

"A B rank mission for housing a child?" Ibiki asked incredulously.

Tsunade laughed. "Ibiki, I understand you aren't very competent with children, but I think even for you an A rank mission is asking for too much." _That's not what I meant. _

"Besides," Tsunade continued, "Mejika is actually a wonderful young person. I doubt she will give you any trouble at all."

Ibiki could see his hands were tied. He could argue with her all day, but regardless of if he could come up with a hundred reasons she was still the Hokage and had the final say so. He sighed. "All right. So what time will she be discharged five days from now?"

Tsunade looked at him with triumph. "Anywhere from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.," Tsunade answered.

_Great… just… great,_ he thought nodding to her sullenly. _Just great._

_

* * *

_

Ibiki did not go straight back to the ANBU HQ. After leaving Tsunade's office, he went home to think for a while. Closing the door behind he leaned his back against the cool wood. Ibiki let out a massive sigh he had been holding back. Ibiki looked around at his blank walls, the drabness of it all. He would have a child live here? Certainly it was suitable for his own needs, but didn't seem right for Mejika.

Ibiki walked down the hall and looked into the exercise room he had. There was no way he would get his room ready in time unless he was somehow able to move all of his stuff out into storage and bring in a bed for her. She would have to sleep on the couch then.

He'd probably have to go grocery shopping before she came also. Besides, it was almost time for him to go shopping for his own needs anyway. Perhaps Mrs. Hirokoi would give him some ideas for meals.

A major problem crossed his mind as he thought about Mrs. Hirokoi; where would Mejika go when he was at work? He certainly couldn't bring her to work with him… could he? Ibiki recalled some of his more rough interrogations and tried to picture her watching that. It didn't work.

_Well, maybe Mrs. Hirokoi can watch her while I do that,_ Ibiki thought. Mrs. Hirokoi did love kids. She had five of her own. They had all grown up and out of the house, three to be ninjas, one a carpenter, and the other a butcher. He was sure she would enjoy being able to take care of another even if it was only part of the time.

It was decided then. He would ask Mrs. Hirokoi for some help with his little… guest. Ibiki locked the door on his way out and headed back to work.

* * *

As soon as Ibiki stepped in the building and Mrs. Hirokoi caught sight of him, she could tell he was irritated.

"Well, it looks like she ruffled your proud pretty feathers," she said with a chuckle as he approached her desk, his face set in a downcast frown.

"Lady Tsunade assigned me a mission," he stated.

"Sounds serious," she said gravely, though with a wink.

"It seems she finds me the most suitable to house the girl that was taken from Orochimaru's hideout, and her mind is set and will not be changed," he said with his voice as downcast as his expression. Mrs. Hirokoi, however, looked at him with great interest.

"A child? Really? What's her name? How old is she?" she inquired.

"Her name is Mejika, and she's either six or seven."

"Which is it, six or seven?" she demanded.

Ibiki hesitated. "I don't think anyone asked her exactly what her age was."

"Hmph, how unprofessional," she scoffed, "So what's she like then?"

"Rather quite I think. She has a strong attachment to birds that she most likely got from her country's history. I think it's quite possible she also has a keke genkai that allows her speak to them, though I'm not yet sure how it works," Ibiki explained.

"Interesting," Mrs. Hirokoi pondered for a moment. "And what exactly is your assignment with this child?"

"I am to protect her, house her, and get as much information from about Orochimaru and her home country as possible," Ibiki paused, selecting his next words. "Unfortunately, it seems that it will be quite difficult for me to take care of her while at work."

Mrs. Hirokoi's entire face seemed to light up upon hearing these words. "None sense. If it's someone you need to look after her while you're here I can do it easily. I would love to take care of her," she said confidently.

Ibiki expressed a small smile. "Thank you, Mrs. Hirokoi. I appreciate that very much."

"My pleasure. I love children. Quite frankly, I've been missing their company ever since Kozu moved out. Besides, you won't have to worry about losing her because she'll be a room away," she chattered merrily, clearly pleased at the idea. "So when will she be coming?"

"In five days," Ibiki answered.

Mrs. Hirokoi ticked the days off on her fingers then scowled. "Argh, that's a Sunday, which means I won't meet her until Monday… _unless_," she fixed Ibiki with a viciously triumphant smile. "You sir, have just run out of excuses not to come to dinner. The same day you bring her home you are bringing her to my house and the two of you will be having dinner with us."

It was neither a request nor an offer, not a question but a demand. With a woman like Mrs. Hirokoi, it was impossible to reject a demand. It simply wasn't something you did. That was just the type of person she was; respectable, caring, organized, a touch bossy, and once she completely set her mind to something, impossible to shake her off. Ibiki didn't even bother arguing.

Instead, he merely nodded. "I was wondering if you could help me with my grocery list," he said instead, relieved to have some help organizing for Mejika's arrival.

"Certainly, certainly. If she's going to stay in your house she's going to need some good food," Mrs. Hirokoi said as she ripped a piece of paper out of one of her notebooks and took out again. "Now let's see…,"

Ibiki spent the next several minutes nodding, agreeing, answering small questions, and watching his friend and receptionist as she wrote his grocery list for him. While Ibiki had doubts about his own abilities in taking care of Mejika, at the very least she would be a well fed child with Mrs. Hirokoi's help. Perhaps this would be easier than he thought…

* * *

**"Perhaps this would be easier than he thought..." Don't all bad things usually begin with a statement like that? LOL, he's just asking for trouble. Well there you go folks :). By the way, how are you all liking Mrs. Hirokoi? She's going to become a major character so if there's anything you'd like to mention about her say it now. **


End file.
